Almost every day Red wonders – is Our Poor Idiot Governor really the pathetic and pitiable idiot constantly pandering to the GOP’s basest denizens that he appears to be?  The answer turns out to be yes.

Long time readers will remember the public freakout over the routine military exercise dubbed Jade Helm 15 that was displayed by such apparently all-too-easily fooled notables of the Texas GOP establishment such as OPIG, Lyin’ Ted Cruz,  the moronic Louie “Kablooie” Gohmert and the always disappointing John “Pandermaster” Cornyn.  At the urging of them and a host of fanatic right wingers convinced that jackbooted federal troops under the command of that Muslim Kenyan terrorist (who somehow managed to win the presidency in a landslide) were coming to Texas to take away their women, children and most importantly guns, OPIG called out the Texas National Guard to keep an eye on our heretofore most worshipful military.  Well, it turns out that much of the Jade Helm hype was the work of – wait for it – Russian trolls and bots.  So yes, OPIG is just that – a pitiful excuse for a state leader. The Texas Observer has the full story.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s willingness to pander to the manic extremism broadcast through AM radio airwaves and streamed on the margins of YouTube apparently has him playing right into the hands of Russian disinformation campaigns.

At least that’s what former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden said on a “Morning Joe” podcast about the governor’s decision in 2015 to deploy the Texas State Guard to monitor federal troops.  Hayden said, “There was an exercise in Texas called Jade Helm 15 that Russian bots in the American alt-right media convinced most — many — Texans was an Obama plan to round up political dissidents.”

Abbott fell right into the trap, Hayden said, by legitimizing conspiracy theories with official state action. “At that point, I’m figuring the Russians are saying, ‘We can go big time,’ and at that point I think they said ‘We’re going to play in the electoral process.’”

If Hayden’s report is right, then the governor of Texas was fooled into siccing the Texas State Guard on U.S. troops by Russia.